Home from a sold out trip through Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Trent Reznor is back in New Orleans preparing for Fragility V2.0, Nine
Inch Nails‘ American tour. This forty-three-round, ten week cross-country bout
will be his first US. shows in five years. “I‘m very, very much looking forward
to it,“ says Reznor. “Every date we played [abroad] reminded me of how much I
longed to be back touring in America.“

As you might expect from someone who took years
to re cord his latest album, The Fragile, Reznor has been involved with every
aspect of planning the tour. “In the studio, I‘m in fine-art mode,“ he says. “I
do purely what appeals to me and don‘t try to cater to an audience. In a live
situation, I put myself in the seat of the fans.“ There will be plenty of cuts
from The Fragile - to Reznor‘s surprise, the new songs “The Day the World Went
Away“ and “Even Deeper“ are particularly fun to play. “But there‘s a fair portion
of older material as well,“ he says. “I know people want to hear the stuff they
love.“

Reznor‘s Pink Floyd obsession hasn‘t gone away.
Bob Ezrin, producer of The Wall, helped him find a story line for The Fragile;
now Reznor is working with veteran Floyd lighting designer Mark Brickman.
“We‘re trying some thing never before done: using LCD monitors as lights rather
than image projectors,“ says Reznor. “There‘s a good level of being unsure of
what we‘re about to do. If I felt too confident, I‘d be playing it safe.“ He
warns us not to take the Floyd parallel too far, though. “It‘s not so much of a
narrative theme as something like The Wall,“ he says. “The similarities are
more in terms of pacing, climaxes, peaks and valleys — moments of restraint
leading up to bigger moments of assault.“

Gearing up for the assault are
multi-instrumentalists Robin Finck, Danny Lohner and Charlie Clouser, and new
drummer Jerome Dillon. Fans will also get their first taste of Reznor‘s friends
A Perfect Circle, led by Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan and one-time NIN
guitar-tech Billy Howerdel. Keenan describes the music as “more accessible than
things I‘ve done in the past. There‘s a lot more introspection and melody. I
have high hopes for it. But there‘s no competing with the Nails. Their show is
going to be devastating.“

Reznor isn‘t planning to pummel fans into
submission, though. He predicts the high point of the show will be the final tune.
“We generally end with the song ‘Hurt,‘ “ he says. “It‘s a very quiet, intimate
way to dose the show. That last minute, there‘s a feeling of release that
you‘ve actually survived the set, and a sense of connection that I see in
people‘s eyes.“

What makes it worthwhile, according to Reznor,
“is not so much playing the right note, but seeing people interpret what I‘ve
given them and make it their own.“